Meet our 2025 speakers: Chetan on Powerless by Design
We are welcoming Chetan Padia to talk about "Powerless by Design" at FFConf 2025.
We wanted to also thank Chetan for taking the time to answer our questions so we can all get to know him a little bit more before 14th November.
About Chetan and their talk
- Title: Powerless by Design
- About the talk: Your users often have to opt in to cookies, privacy policies, terms and conditions, accounts, or apps, just to use your product. What are you and your users giving away? How do we build for the benefit of users first?
- Chetan's origin story: I wanted to play computer games like my friends were playing but my parents put a computer with BASIC in front of me and told me to make my own.
The warm up questions
What’s the first thing you ever made in BASIC - and would you still play it today?
A maze game. No, it only had one level!
Do you think giving a kid a programming language instead of a game is a power move… or a villain arc?
Both. Being forced to make your own fun is inspiring, but you've got to leave room to get lost in other worlds.
What’s one piece of small print you’ve actually read all the way through - and did it change your life or just ruin your day?
The cookie opt ins for a spirit level app. It took so long just to scroll through the list of cookie providers. It didn't even work very well.
About the work and the talk
You talk about what we give away just to get in the door of digital products - what was the moment you first realised how much power we’d ceded?
The Brexit referendum. It made no sense, but analysis afterwards showed it was targeted ads that swayed the vote.
How can indie developers or small teams push back against these patterns without tanking their own user acquisition?
Use smaller service providers. Pay for what you use.
Is there a particular consent mechanism or dark pattern that especially frustrates you when you see it implemented?
People expect online services to be free. Free services have to make money in other ways, at scale, and they don't care about you as an individual.
Do you think we need regulation, cultural shift, or better design education to turn this around - or all three?
A cultural shift and education about circular economics.
Find out more about Chetan online on their website.
Join us in November to see Chetan's talk: 2025.ffconf.org